The Benghazi Hearing in 30 Seconds


Here’s a brief summary of the points that Republicans apparently wanted to make during this morning’s grilling of Hillary Clinton:

  • Clinton is the chief architect of our disastrous Libya policy.
  • Clinton didn’t send or receive much email about Libya in 2012.
  • Did Clinton even know we had a mission in Benghazi in 2012?
  • If she did, she sure didn’t care about security there.
  • And here’s a chart that proves it.
  • What’s the deal with THE VIDEO?
  • Sidney Blumenthal!

Nope, nothing about Hillary Clinton here. Just a search for the truth about what happened. Josh Marshall comments:

The lines of questions are disjointed and they’re pressing points she either freely concedes (yes, it was terrible and she’s ultimately responsible) or the point of which isn’t even clear (why did Sid Blumenthal send you so many emails?). It’s not going well for the committee at all. And what’s most revealing about the testimony so far is that they definitely get that: they know it’s going badly for them. And that’s led to a rather churlish and defensive tone to the whole proceeding that’s further deflated any sense that this is more than a clown show where the clowns are struggling.

….Republican committee members just seemed pissed because this was supposed to be awesome — after all, a committee designed to bring down Hillary and circulate all those numskull conspiracy theories about Chris Stevens wearing a chest cam and how President Obama was watching everything happening live on his iPhone. Hillary’s yet to get at all flustered and has even had the opportunity to gently explain to Republican members how the State Department works. She looks poised; they’re radiating spittle.

Yep. And this afternoon’s session started off with more Sid. Sigh.

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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